Compost

Being among the best of mulches and soil adjustments, compost is responsible for improving soil texture, structure, and aeration. With compost, the clay soil gets loosened while sandy soils get tightened to retain water. Loosening of soil helps the penetration of fertilizers to the root area, and the presence of nourished micro-organisms will the help production of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.

Making compost means healthy disposal of waste matters as there are not enough sites to throw away the wastes where they can be bio-degraded automatically. Furthermore, it takes time to manage that, and the waste matters can be foul-smelling. You should have a compost maker spot dedicated to making compost rather than throwing materials that can be used to improve the lawn and the garden.

Now the question is, “How to make compost?” Compost is made from the waste matters of organisms like bacteria, fungi, worms and insects. It refers to the earthy substance called humus which is rich in soil nutrients. You should collect the waste materials in compost piles, and provide the right moisture and air to speed up the decaying process while providing heat (130 degrees Fahrenheit) to kill organism that causes plant diseases and weed seeds. The ideal compost mix is in the ratio of 25 parts of brown materials to 1 part of green material. Extra carbon slows down the decaying process and provides energy for the microbes, while more nitrogen causes odor but provides protein.

How to compost when you don’t have a garden area available? Since composting is the process of disintegration of organic substances, you can keep the waste materials in a bag and leave it for rotting to make bagged compost, which is also called organic compost. You can compost dryer lint, but you should be careful about getting harmful chemicals into the compost pile. Worm compost uses red earthworms to feed the organic waste to produce mulch. This process is also called vermi-composting. Mushroom compost is produced with the waste obtained from the mushroom production industry which consists of straw, dried blood, horse manure and ground chalk.

Small compost pails with lids can be maintained inside the kitchen to collect the waste, but insects should be kept away from it. About 8" of brown materials has to be added to the compost pile to prevent flies and critters. Since the temperature of the compost pile indicates the speed of the decomposition process, you can use a compost thermometer to find out about the speed of the microbial activity, so that you will know how much green or brown to add. Compost thermometers are not very expensive and they can be easily handled.